Putting a Spring in His Step

You might remember this post from last July. I had decided that Ben could make a good agility dog. Yesterday I put that plan into practise.

My search for a nearby club proved fruitless - the isn't one for miles. So I'm just going to have to train him myself, with whatever 'equipment' I can find.

The first step was getting Ben to jump over things. This is something Ben doesn't usually do, so I was a bit unsure if he would take to it.

This is my starter jump - a fence post.

It didn't take him long to learn that he had to go over it and not around, and on the vocal cue of "hup", he would walk over it with ease.

And more than once...

But that was too easy. I added a little extra height with two planks at either end.

But he's not exactally jumping is he? He's more sort of walking. So that's when I had the idea of using a second fence post.

Now he was scared. I had to retrain Ben to jump before he would go over it.

Well, at least he's started now. I left the session at that, on a high note (no pun intended) and I'll take him back to it in a few days. I wonder if he'll remember...